It appears as though speculation that the Tampa Bay Rays could be relocating will soon be put to rest. According to the Tampa Bay Times, the Rays are expected to announce a deal for a new $1.2B 30,000 seat stadium on Tuesday.
The tentative timeline on the new stadium’s completion would be 2028, which coincides with the club’s 30 year lease of Tropicana Field which will wrap up in 2027.
Rays owner Stuart Sternberg had previously hinted that the club would be willing to pay approximately half of the costs to build a new facility to keep the team in Tampa Bay. The other half would need to come from the city of St. Petersburg and the county. There’s been no word on the financial breakdown of the newly reported deal as of yet.
The new stadium will be part of a multi-billion dollar redevelopment of a parcel of land known as the “gas plant district”. The 86 acre space will look to include affordable housing, office space, and retail zoning as well.
Prior to news of the new deal, numerous rumours of relocation had been floated around Major League Baseball. One such plan included splitting home games between Tampa Bay and Montreal, however that was quickly shuttered by the league itself.
Nashville, Portland, and even Salt Lake City had also made the rounds in recent years as potential future locations for the Rays. While it’s still possible that each could still see a new MLB franchise in the coming years, that now seems more likely to come via expansion than relocation.
The proposed new facility would feature a dome roof, and allow the team to increase sponsorship revenue with new marketing avenues and amenities. Despite there being multiple parties interested in purchasing shares of the MLB club, Tampa hasn’t taken on any new investors to date with their new stadium project.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Keith Allison. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.